Sunday, 29 December 2013

FLATTIE BASHING

Recently i have been drawn towards having a bash at catching some lovely Essex flounders like i used to many years ago. I actually havn,t caught, or fished for, flounder for a good 10 years now. In fact probably the last time i caught one would of been when i used to fish the platforms near Westcliff Leisure Center for anything that would take my bait. I used to love fishing tides that would be at their highest around 9pm, during the winter this was, and would use light gear and cast to the moored boats and end of the groins and would have great fun catching pouting, whiting, flounder, dabs, small bass and sometimes even rockling. My other half at the time thought i was mad as i would go out in all sorts of weather, i loved it that much.

Anyway due to reminiscing about my past fishing exploits i decided that i needed to scratch this itch and early one morning last week saw me and Oscar The Wonder Dog walking along the pathway at the bottom of the sea defences at a mark on Canvey Island, one i have never really fished to tell the truth but i,d been advised to give it a go by a few friends on one of the fishing forums, in hope of connecting with a couple of plump flounders. A nice are was found within casting distance of the main channel and after setting up my rod out flew a 2 hook flapper rig baited with frozen lugworm.

Everything was quite until around an hour before high tide when i started to get a few little rattles on my rod tip. After striking into thin air i eventually reeled in this tiny little pin whiting which i didn,t even realise was hanging onto my hook. A few more little rattles resulted in me again not hooking into anything, so i decided to leave the next rattle to materialise a little longer in the hope that the rattles were possibly being caused by flounder nipping and tugging at the end of the worm.

A few rattles stared after i re-freshed my bait but i sat on my hands. A few more rattles followed by a nice pull down on the rod tip had me jump up and position myself with the rod tucked under my arm and nice bit of tension on the tip. Again a few more little rattles were seen on the tip but more importantly felt through the rod, i was using braid mainline and my pike rods, then a nice thump followed by a good pull and instinctively i pulled into whatever was pulling at the other end. Excitedly i felt so weight at the other end and preceded to bring in something which was pulling back. As the fish got 10 foot or so from the bank it started to actually fight back which was great as its been years since i,ve actually had a sea fish fight back. In next to no time this gorgeous plump flounder surfaced and was soon on dry land. I was over the moon as my target had been achieved. Quickly unhooked, a few pictures taken with my phone and away she went back to her watery home. Bloody fantastic.....

Nothing much materialised after the flounder but it might have been because a seal popped its up and watched Oscar run around for a bit. But to be honest i wasn,t that bothered as i was made up with flounder i had caught, now i can,t wait to have another go for them.